The Every Day

a fifo wife {fifo life: whats for dinner: chilli con carne}

Posted on by debbie / 0 Comment

A really good favourite among my the boys and great freezer meal recipe. A perfect for being used in Nachos as well. I always always make double. Serve with rice perefct easy meal.

Chilli Con Carne

  • 2 teaspoons olive oil
  • 125g rindless bacon, roughly chopped
  • 750g lean beef mince
  • 2 medium brown onions, finely chopped
  • 2 medium red capsicums, chopped
  • 3 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 1 long red chilli, chopped (optional especially when making for kids)
  • 2 tablespoons Mexican chilli powder
  • 1 teaspoon of garam masala (this is a optional deb extra)
  • 800g can chopped tomatoes
  • 400g can red kidney beans, drained,
  • 1 beef stock cube

How to:

  1. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add bacon. Cook for 5 to 6 minutes or until crisp. Add mince. Cook, stirring with a wooden spoon to break up mince, for 15 minutes or until browned.
  2. Add onions, capsicums, garlic and chopped chilli. Cook for 5 to 6 minutes or until vegetables are soft. Add chilli powder and garam masala. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute or until fragrant.
  3. Add tomatoes, beef stock cub and 1 cup cold water. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat to mediumlow. Simmer, partially covered, for 30 minutes or until sauce has reduced slightly.
  4. Add beans. Increase heat to medium. Cook for 15 minutes or until beans are heated through and sauce has thickened. Serve chilli with toppings.

Serve with rice, sour cream, cheese, guacamole…yum!!

XX Deb

 

The Every Day

a fifo wife {fifo life: real life fifo: stalker alert}

Posted on by debbie / 3 Comments

So fed up with the month and knowing that FIFO husband was due home at some point in the next week. I spent most of my day periodically checking his Frequent Fly-er Account…shhh…to see if his work had booked flights. Yes I hold the details for most of his accounts…poor man..there are no secrets from me. Actually periodically is an understatement I was a women possessed.

His work oddly has never ever contacted me to advise when he will or wont be home. They are the only company that haven’t kept ‘the wife’ informed so I don’t like to call them and ask either. I think I have called them twice in our seven year employ. Both times it was a brain snap..so they dont really count. I don’t want to seem desperate or needy. Instead I behave nonchalantly from a far all while checking the Qantas website like I was in the running for a starring role in the sequel for fatal attraction.

So I knew he would be home around the 3rd. Come 430pm I was getting desperate what if he isn’t coming home until the 11th he had thrown that date in somewhere I ran the dates, days through my brain…hmmm that might be a stretch for my patience, decorum and sanity. I did one last check at 500pm…bingo there it was..QF123.

I did the happy dance. Man I did the happy dance and I’m smiling. Smiling like the Cheshire cat. Now we are in full blown get ready for dad mode. Scrubbers, Clippers, hedgers will be out and I’m talking about whats required for moi. I have been somewhat neglectful of me. Winter=jeans…the only reason I shave my legs in winter is in case Im hit by a bus..seriously..its also why my office is always tidy…just in case I’m hit by a bus. I wouldn’t wont them to think I didn’t have it under control. I kid you not.

So my dear friends. Let the count down begin.

xxDeb

The Every Day

a fifo wife {fifo life: me: out of sorts}

Posted on by debbie / 4 Comments

My uncle died yesterday. And whilst I’m not making light of the situation is was 40 years of smoking with no filter…it was going to happen. His death was a long and painful one and I wish that it didn’t have to happen that way because he was an amazing man. He was funny, strong and a good husband to my aunt. Along with that he took me in as a teenager and provided me with somewhere to go when I was in trouble. I give credit where credit is due and I owe him some credit. He was good to me without return.

So today I’m a little out of sorts. Apart from my mum and dad none of my family live in Australia. We are originally from across the ditch..New Zealand for those who don’t know that phrase and so I made the decision not to see him when the family was called nor will I attend his funeral. I can say my good byes from here. My belief is that his soul and spirit will be every where and here is just a good as spot as anywhere to say goodbye.

I will go and support my aunt when everyone has gone and it will be just her in that big old house. I think that is the right thing to do. I think.

So here’s to Cap Rata one more angel in the sky. Thank you for being all that you were.

xx Deb

The Every Day

a fifo wife {fifo life: pregnancy: photographing labour would you?}

Posted on by debbie / 10 Comments

There alots of you my lovelies in the midst of having babies. Yummy yummy babies. So it got me wondering would you photograph your labour? I had a girlfriend do it for her birth and when B1 was born we did the odd happy snap of our own but it seems hiring a photographer to be there from start to finish is becoming increasingly popular. Some even specialise in birth photography. Well its popular in the United States it is so its only a matter of time I guess until its here.

Originally I thought no way hozay. That’s just to invasive. I thought blood, mucus, too many bodily fluid to think about. Yuck. As it was I tried to keep as much decorum in my labour as possible. I refused to moan, scream or cry…crazy because I think that restriction on myself made the pain more intense. Instead I winced, breathed and squeezed the crap out my husband hand trying to transfer the pain.

So too allow someone to photograph my contorted face as I huffed and puffed through a contraction ah no. No way. Its a mix of vanity and the fact that my labouring style was the least amount of people present the better I handled things. But I have come across some very beautiful images and well its a really nice way to document an arrival. There is not a sign of bodily fluid anywhere and the contorted faces well its beautiful when you see the image for what it is.

So what do you think wold you have a ‘photograher’ photograph your labour?

xx Deb